There is still presently a strong wish to have available on the market spreadable food products to be used as substitutes for butter, margarine or other similar fat spreads, and having a low level of fat so as to reduce the caloric content thereof, or for other dietetic considerations.
Spreads are already known in which the fat has been partially replaced by other products such as proteins, gelatin, hydrolysed or modified starches and/or maltodextrin, etc, as disclosed for example in EP-A-237120 and WO 93/17565.
However, none of these known available low fat spreads is really satisfying for the consumer, since they may have unusual flavour, taste, texture, consistency, appearance or mouthfeel (as being for example somewhat grainy), and are not sufficiently heat resistant. Furthermore, some of these known spreads involve a manufacturing method which is relatively complex or too expensive to carry out.
On the other hand, a new fat replacer, food grade texture agent, has been developed by the same applicant, which is described in the International application WO 96/03057, and which is consisting in microparticulate high amylose starch, and more particularly in thermally stabilized swelling resistant and non crystalline particles of high amylose starch, in which the amylose content of the starch is of 40 to 70%, and in which 90% of the particles have a diameter in the range of 5 to 30 microns.